{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T06:17:04Z","timestamp":1778566624057,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778544000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"\n Background and aims<\/jats:title>\n The stability of liver function in pregnant hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers is closely related to both maternal and infant outcomes. However, the role of gut microbiota in HBV infection during pregnancy remains unclear. This study aimed to analyze the compositional characteristics of gut microbiota in pregnant HBV carriers and to explore their associations with liver biochemical indicators.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n This study enrolled 20 pregnant women with hepatitis B virus infection (HBV group) and 13 healthy pregnant women (control group, CON). Clinical data were collected from all subjects. Fresh fecal samples were obtained and subjected to 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing to characterize gut microbial alpha diversity, beta diversity, and between-group differences in community composition. Spearman correlation analysis was employed to assess associations between gut microbiota and liver biochemical indicators as well as HBV DNA load.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Beta diversity analysis indicated a significant separation of overall microbiota structure between the HBV and CON groups. At the phylum level, the gut microbiota in both groups was predominantly composed of Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. At the genus level, the dominant genera were\n Bacteroides<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Prevotella<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Faecalibacterium<\/jats:italic>\n . Compared with the CON group, the HBV group showed significantly decreased abundances of Synergistota and Desulfobacterota at the phylum level, Synergistia and Desulfovibrionia at the class level, and\n NK4A214_group<\/jats:italic>\n and\n Desulfovibrio<\/jats:italic>\n at the genus level (all\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05), whereas\n Acidaminococcus<\/jats:italic>\n was significantly enriched (\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05). Spearman analysis showed that\n Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Lachnospira, Muribaculum, Parabacteroides, Parasutterella, [Eubacterium] eligens group<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Prevotella<\/jats:italic>\n were negatively correlated with liver function-related indicators (\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05). In contrast,\n Coprococcus<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Prevotella<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Ruminococcus<\/jats:italic>\n were positively correlated with liver function-related indicators (\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05). Notably,\n Escherichia-Shigella<\/jats:italic>\n demonstrated positive correlations with both liver function indicators and HBV-DNA levels (\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u00a0&lt;\u00a00.05).\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n Pregnant HBV carriers exhibit distinct gut microbiota compositional features compared to healthy pregnant controls. Specific bacterial genera show correlations with HBV DNA levels and liver biochemical parameters.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2026.1782685","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T05:43:58Z","timestamp":1778564638000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Characteristics of gut microbiota in pregnant hepatitis b virus carriers and their correlation with liver biochemical indicators"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Tao","family":"Xie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Department of Pathology, Faculty of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Medical Sciences Research Center, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Molecular Medicine Diagnostic and Testing Center, Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiawen","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuropsycholinguistics, Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Congcong","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, Faculty of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Medical Sciences Research Center, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Molecular Medicine Diagnostic and Testing Center, Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]},{"name":"Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"558","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhep.2019.10.003","article-title":"The gut-liver axis in liver disease: Pathophysiological basis for therapy","volume":"72","author":"Albillos","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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